


mimosa

by midnightweeds



Series: Bloom [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark, F/M, Marriage, Romance, Secrets, Trains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 18:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15418653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightweeds/pseuds/midnightweeds
Summary: These days, the only person ever with him was Hermione.Quietly, he said, “It’s inside me.”Her fingers stilled. He closed his eyes, waiting her her to push him away. To tell him she would report him to the ministry.“What is?” She asked, voice just as quiet.He felt her shields go up, the soft whisper of her magic protecting their conversation. “Him. It. Whatever’s left.”





	mimosa

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> _feel it gentle on the back of your throat, sensitive on your skin_  
> 

Regulus jerked awake from his dream, daylight blinding his eyes. **  
**

“Okay?” Hermione questioned, voice gentle.

He looked over to find her knitting, the sleeves of her cardigan rolled up over her elbows. Mudblood stood out against her arm, drawing his eyes away from everything else, but she made no effort to cover it. He remembered that they were safe- on their way to England for Harry’s birthday-, that it hadn’t gotten him. Yet.

“Bad dream?”

“Yes,” he heard himself say, pulling his eyes away from her long, thin fingers to look out the window instead.

Regulus hesitated. They had always been kind to each other. Sensitive to the other’s needs and desires. He worried that if he told her this now, life would shift uncomfortably around him. It wouldn’t go on the same anymore. It couldn’t.

“Regulus?” She questioned, leaning forward in her seat.

The world continued to rush by them, the Italian countryside blurring into splotches of green and purple and brown. The sky was so blue above them, lighting the dim traincar, and for a moment none of it felt real. He considered himself: still hanging in the void of the horcrux, still screaming, still dying. It had all disappeared when he’d taken her hand.

How could he tell her now that something was living in him? That he was on the verge of dragging them both into the abyss? She’d leave him. Her morals wouldn’t be able to stand it.

Her hand settled on his knee, fingers brushing his trouser-covered inner thigh. It felt like something between consumption and devotion. “Talk to me, my love.”

Her voice was like the brush of lips she always offered the Potter children. He dared to look at her and saw pure emotion in her eyes. It sickened him that she could feel so strongly about him. One look had always affirmed that he was, in fact, her love. Hers to keep. To have. To hold.

He got up from his seat and knelt before her, placing his head in her lap and wrapping his arms around her legs. She hesitated, the tense of her muscles offering him a taste of fear he hadn’t experienced in years. He wondered if she could feel it, growing inside of him like a child.

He wondered if he’d have to start feeding it soon, too.

As her hands came down on his head, fingers gentle through his dark curls, he gave himself a moment to consider his own dream. He’d seen the darkness moving in, slow and steady as it filled the world around him. He’d felt it curling in his stomach, feeding off his fear of it being there. With his eyes open now, he realized that someone had been there with him. That they’d been dying.

These days, the only person ever with him was Hermione.

Quietly, he said, “It’s inside me.”

Her fingers stilled. He closed his eyes, waiting her her to push him away. To tell him she would report him to the ministry.

“What is?” She asked, voice just as quiet.

He felt her shields go up, the soft whisper of her magic protecting their conversation. “Him. It. Whatever’s left.”

She continued to comb through his curls, nails against his scalp as she soothed him.

“I feel pregnant with it.”

“That suggests that soon they’ll be a part of it we have no real control of in the world.”

His arms moved up her legs, curling around her waist as he dragged her closer to the edge of the bench. Someone before them had spilt cola on the floor, and his trousers stuck to the ground as he shifted closed to her. “Don’t leave me.”

“Regulus. I love you. I’d never.”

He looked up at her and she kissed him, lips firm against his. She encouraged him up onto the bench next to her, her hands touching his face and throat, moving down his chest and hesitating at his stomach.

“I feel it. Like it lives there. Like it moves.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I was afraid you’d leave me.”

She grabbed his hand, running a finger over his wedding ring. “I made a promise, didn’t I? To you. To the gods.”

He thumbed her ring in return, silently reaffirming their vows to each other. “This is different. I’ll become what they said I would.”

She pressed another kiss to his mouth, and he felt himself opening to the power she offered him. To the certainty the flooded out of her and enveloped him. He returned the kiss, taking her face in his hands and pulling her closer to him, enjoying the brush of her breast against his chest.

When she finally pulled away from him, lips swollen and cheeks flushed, she twisted one of his curls around her finger, watching as it sprang back into place. Her hand brushed down his face and chest, beneath the edge of his shirt, where his skin was hot with recognition. As though her acceptance was all it’d been waiting for. As though it knew her in some way.

Someone knocked on their cabin door, and the pair looked up as Hermione dropped her shield.

“Any flowers for the lady, my lord?”

He spotted a yellow bouquet and offered the young boy a galleon. “Worth every sickle,” he told him, accepting the flowers and settling them into her hands.

Hermione kissed him again when they were alone. “Don’t be afraid, my love,” she told him, lips pressing chastely to the corner of his mouth. “If you become darkness, I become darkness, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally posted on my tumblr, honeyweeds.
> 
> thank you for reading<3


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